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Ed Sheeran · S1 E4
First Blood
Homemade CDs, school talent shows, and the first time Ed plays to strangers who actually listen
Ed Sheeran is fourteen, standing on a tiny stage in a Suffolk pub, and the audience is three people and a barman who isn't listening. He plays his full set anyway.
"Drunk" (Ed Sheeran, official music video, 2012). Ed wrote early versions of songs like this as a teenager in Framlingham before they ever saw a real studio. Ignore the teddy bear: listen to the melody. That's the craft of a kid who wrote hundreds of songs before anyone was paying attention.
Drunk, Ed Sheeran (2011)
"Drunk" is deceptively simple: a bouncing acoustic guitar, a sing-along melody, and lyrics about missing someone so much you end up drinking alone. Jake Gosling produced it at Sticky Studios with the same stripped-back approach Ed had been perfecting since his first bedroom recordings. The production stays completely out of the way, and that instinct, don't add what the song doesn't need, is something Ed learned before he ever stepped inside a real studio.
Sources
Gosling, Jake. Interview with Music Tech Magazine, 2012.
Nolan, David. "Ed Sheeran: A+." Omnibus Press, 2014.
The Routine
Ed's daily cycle becomes: school, homework, write a song, record it, go to bed. He uses a borrowed laptop and free recording software. Most of the songs are bad, and he knows it. But every week, one is slightly less bad than the last, and that's enough to keep going.
Sources
Nolan, David. "Ed Sheeran: A+." Omnibus Press, 2014.
Mulligan, Mark. "Ed Sheeran: The Biography." John Blake Publishing, 2018.
TAP TO REVEAL: How many songs did Ed write before he considered one of them good?
“I walk in and the first thing I say is, dare to suck. This might suck, it might be good. If it sucks, no one has to hear it, we scrap it. But if it is good and great, you keep it.”
— Ed Sheeran, speaking at Belmont University, Nashville, 2025
Thomas Mills High School, Framlingham
Ed performed at school talent shows here, testing what it felt like to stand in front of a crowd before he'd ever seen the inside of a proper venue.
Teenage Ed: The Numbers
Grade 8, Ed Sheeran (2011)
"Grade 8" is Ed writing about his school years with the energy of someone who barely survived them. Fast, confident, and slightly reckless. After hearing about bedroom recordings and talent shows, this is the version of that kid who made it out and turned those notebooks into an album.
Grade 8, Ed Sheeran (2011)
The lyrics move at the same speed as teenage Ed's brain: fast, restless, jumping between ideas like someone who has too much to say and not enough time. Read them and you'll hear a kid who was already writing like his life depended on it.
What software did teenage Ed Sheeran use to record his first songs?
Ed has a guitar, a stack of songs that are getting less bad every week, and a habit he can't break: write, record, play, repeat. Next episode: every pub, open mic, and village hall in Suffolk, and the teenager who played them all before anyone was paying attention.
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